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Comment by bradknowles | Hacker News Reader

Counter evidence: https://youtu.be/cuZYROM4Vrs

In fact, much of the JerryRigEverything YouTube channel is counter evidence for this claim, as Zack shows taking two electric bikes and welding them together for a seriously good and relatively inexpensive first pass at an “off road wheelchair”, and then ups the ante with his custom-designed “notawheelchair” a.k.a. “Rig”, and plenty of other videos with his lovely now-wife Cambry.

Now, if someone is dependent on staying in their electric wheelchair and they need a van with a lift or a ramp, then the current fleet of EVs aren’t very suitable for that. But I’m sure that situation will change. But claiming that there is absolutely no future in electric vehicles for disabled people is quite … disingenuous … at best.

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That’s got little to do with the article.

Their primary issue is EV’s have batteries in the floor. This is great for driving as it lowers the center of gravity and adds space for a frunk, but adding a wheelchair ramp etc becomes extremely difficult. It’s fixable, but significantly more expensive to deal with.

Charging cables are heavy and require precision making them difficult for many disabled people to use. Also few charging stations have been added to disabled parking spaces.

"Charging cables are heavy and require precision making them difficult for many disabled people to use. Also few charging stations have been added to disabled parking spaces."

Interesting. Why isn't the ADA used to require such affordances?

I can’t speak to the entire EV charging landscape, but Tesla’s 250kw charging pedestals are liquid cooled and have thin, easily manipulated charge cables and Supercharger stations (at least in Florida) have dedicated handicap spots.

Gas stations have signs posted saying that if you need ADA assistance and more than two people are working the station to tap your horn or call the number to get full service at normal pump prices.

Something similar for “manned” charging stations would likely suffice (though many are unmanned).

I don’t think it will be any more complicated then having a slightly different ramp. Existing disabled support vehicles in the article are already minivans or vans and they don’t have a particularly low floor to start with.

Disability ramps can’t be overly steep which means the higher the point they need to reach the longer the ramp needs to be. It quickly gets to the point where the only practical solution is a char lift which is expensive and less reliable. Extending the ramp into the vehicle is therefore critical from a practicality standpoint.

It’s likely there will eventually be a viable EV alternative, but for now nothing from Tesla for example is viable.

nothing from Tesla is really a minivan or van. Their affordable suv is more of a minsuv. I haven’t seen any ice mini suvs accommodating wheelchairs.

It’s common to add ramps to SUV’s. EX: https://youtu.be/OdPwvKwcTeM

For comparison the Model X is 198.3” L x 89.4” W x 66” H, where the shown Honda Pilot (excluding mirrors) is 196.5” L x 78.6” W x 70.6” H.

Long distance driving is going to be a point of difficulty for electric vehicles for quite a while but for most day to day uses, charging will happen at home where everything can be set up to make charging easy for the wheelchair user. But the point about the vehicle floor is indeed something that will need to be addressed.

The thing that struck me about the Tesla video is that they're still using after market mechanical controls for acceleration and braking. This is very similar to what my aunt used in her car back in the 80s. Since Tesla is at least partially drive-by-wire, it seems like actual controls on the steering wheel without a mechanical component would be trivial to add. Perhaps there are regulatory reasons for this or maybe Tesla simply hasn't been asked for or prioritized this functionality.

Most cars now are partially drive-by-wire. The mechanical interconnect serves as backup.

> Perhaps there are regulatory reasons for this or maybe Tesla simply hasn't been asked for or prioritized this functionality.

My guess, which I understand to be true with many similar issues: There are enormous safety engineering issues. Unless someone can demonstrate an enormous benefit to changing from a mature, well-tested, safe solution that everyone is already trained on, it's not worth changing. And regarding training: Imagine someone decided to change the driving controls for everyone; imagine the cost.

> claiming that there is absolutely no future in electric vehicles for disabled people

Where does the article say that? Maybe I missed it. The article quotes one engineer saying,

“It’s not insurmountable, but companies have to start working with us now,” Frayne said.

>>But claiming that there is absolutely no future in electric vehicles for disabled people

You didn't read the article.

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